A man has gone on trial accused of throttling his disabled girlfriend to death nine years ago.

Dean Williams, 51, is alleged to have murdered 40-year-old Mary Malkin at her flat in Margate in January 2005.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Ms Malkin's body was found by police wrapped in a red quilt and lying on a mattress in the living room after Williams repeatedly telephoned them to say his girlfriend had been strangled.

Mary Malkin

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court was told today it was, in fact, the second time Williams had been on trial in relation to Ms Malkin's death following a ruling by the Court of Appeal.

But the 10 women and two men were warned that they must reach their verdict solely based on the evidence they hear over the next two weeks.

That will include statements Ms Malkin gave to police in the months before she died, alleging Williams had not only assaulted her but throttled her as well - what prosecutor Cairns Nelson described as a "voice from the grave".

A former girlfriend is also expected to tell the court of how she suffered violence at Williams' hands, including throttling.

Both he and Ms Malkin, who wore a prosthetic limb after her leg was amputated below the knee as a child, were described as alcoholics.

Williams is said to suffer from a chronic form of alcoholism known as Alcohol Dependency Syndrome and, as a result, has some brain damage.

The prosecutor told the jury it is accepted that Williams killed Miss Malkin.

But, in running what he called a "partial defence" of diminished responsibility, he said Williams' legal team would have to satisfy them that the ADS, together with the evidence of brain damage, substantially impaired his mental responsibility.

However, Mr Nelson said the prosecution allege that it was Williams' "propensity to commit acts of violence" that led him to strangle Ms Malkin.

The grave of Mary Malkin, who was strangled in Margate

He told the jury they would have to decide whether the proper verdict was in relation to murder or manslaughter.

"You will have to ask whether he was capable of exercising self-control and just didn't. Was he able to exercise rational judgment but chose not to?"

Mr Nelson added: "He didn't exercise control or he couldn't exercise control is really the question for you."

Mother-of-two Ms Malkin was found after police forced their way into her ground-floor flat at Invicta House, Millmead Road, on January 29, 2005.

There was no electricity or lighting of any sort, and the windows were boarded up. The flat was so dark that officers had to use torches.

However, following his arrest later that day Williams told police he had woken to find his girlfriend dead beside him on the mattress and could see bruising to her face and neck.

Williams said he performed mouth to mouth and chest resuscitation before panicking and leaving the flat with the intention of throwing himself under a train.

A blurry family image of throttling victim Mary Malkin

Williams denied having had any serious argument with Ms Malkin the previous evening and that, after having sex, they went to sleep.

"He told police someone must have come in during the night and someone must have killed her," said Mr Nelson.

"He asserted he would never hurt her in anyway and had never been violent to her in the past. That, we say, is clearly untrue."

However, after giving police a detailed description of the sexual intercourse that took place between them, Williams claimed that if it had been him who killed Ms Malkin, he had no memory of it, having blacked out from drinking vodka and cider.

The court heard that at the time of his arrest he was four-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit. At the time of her death, Ms Malkin was said to be three-and-a-half times the limit.

"You will have to ask whether he was capable of exercising self-control and just didn't. Was he able to exercise rational judgment but chose not to?" - prosecutor Cairns Nelson

"You may want to consider why it was he can give a detailed account before they went to sleep and a detailed account of events that following morning, when his memory failure seems to relate to the time when he strangled her," said Mr Nelson.

Ms Malkin was said to have 19 areas of bruising and grazing to her head and neck area when she died, although some may have been attributable to old injuries and ones caused while in a drunk state.

However, a pathologist found extensive bruising caused by fingertip pressure over her neck and jawline, as well as a fracture consistent with forceful gripping.

Other injuries were said to be consistent with blows from fists.

The cause of death was asphyxiation consistent with manual strangulation.